Authors Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann are the next featured writers for the Grand Valley Writers Series set for Mon. Feb. 27.
The presentation will take place at the Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus in downtown Grand Rapids. There will be a craft talk from 6 – 7 p.m. at the DeVos Center in room 203 E and then a reading and book signing from 7:30 – 8:50 p.m. at the University Club in the DeVos Center.
Francis is the author of three books of poetry, Blue-Tail Fly, Horse in the Dark and the recently released Forest Primeval, which was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. She is the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Prize and a Kresge Fellowship. Francis’ work has appeared in numerous publications including Best American Poetry, Poetry Magazine, and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, among others. She is currently an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College and an associate editor for Callaloo.
Olzmann is the author of Mezzanines, selected for the Kundiman Prize. His second book, Contradictions in the Design, was released in 2016. Olzmann received scholarships and fellowships from Kundiman, the Kresge Arts Foundation and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His poems, stories and essays have appeared in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Necessary Fiction, Brevity, Southern Review and elsewhere. He teaches in the Master of Fine Arts program for writers at Warren Wilson College.
